How did Abraham reconcile God's promise of a future through his son with the command to sacrifice that same son?

[tonychanyt]

God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 17:

19 Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

Isaac was the child of promise, the one through whom God’s covenant would be fulfilled. He was the next in line, and he would produce descendants.

But before Isaac had a wife, God commanded Abraham in Genesis 22:

2 Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.

How did Abraham reconcile these two sayings from God?

Abraham had already experienced God’s faithfulness in fulfilling the promise of Isaac’s birth despite Sarah’s old age and barrenness. Isaac was a miracle child. Abraham had a personal relationship with God, built over years of walking with Him. He knew God as faithful, just, and trustworthy. He didn't even question God about sacrificing Isaac. He just went ahead without hesitation:

3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

The NT gave some insight into Abraham's mindset. Hb 11:

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”

Abraham was well aware of the paradox. He went ahead anyway by faith.

19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Abraham believed that if he had actually sacrificed Isaac, God would raise him from the dead. Rather than seeing an irreconcilable contradiction, he reasoned his way to an astounding conclusion about God's power over death, centuries before any biblical account of resurrection. This narrative highlights Abraham’s profound faith and willingness to surrender everything to God, even when faced with a command that appeared to conflict with God’s earlier promise. It also underscores the idea that God’s ways are beyond human understanding, and His plans are ultimately rooted in His goodness and faithfulness.

This resolution points forward to the ultimate resurrection - linking Abraham's faith in God's ability to raise Isaac with Christian faith in the resurrection of Christ.